I like second season of RID better than first. I read worst comics that is for sure this one is an average comic.

 

I'm not certain if the humans in RID fully believe the Decepticons are good guys. I suspect they may just be in it for their technology. I don't think they really care enough to discover which side is good, they just want to be able to fight whichever one they need to.

 

Humans in RiD went into dealings with Cons already having their mind bomb prepared, as well as the entire force of Seeker clones.
They were just sure they can backstab Cons anyway.

Is RiD a deep comic book? Nope. It probably never tried to be one.

Its political intrigues and dilemmas are on the level with Hollywood and also with more mainstream comic book output from the Big Two. And just like its contemporaries, it relies on cliffhangers and 'splosions.
I call it a Hollywood style writing. It's a comic book equivalent of the blockbuster or serial shows like 24.

Just bring some popcorn and enjoy the RiDe, because you ain't gonna find anything else in it. But then, it was never intended to be anything else.

 

They had all that already? Makes sense considering the 'Cons probably would have noticed Alpha Trion's arrival. My mistake.

 

This is probably about where I stand with comics now. It's not deep, but RID has its moments. While the idea of Prowl might sound like a bad fanfic, I actually like Prowlastator way more than I ever expected. There are just too many characters for the Constructicons to ever get properly developed so lumping them in as Prowl fanboys gives a bit more of an excuse to keep them around in the background even when they aren't forming Devastator. It's a shame that the idea of a such a set just wouldn't ever fly in the regular retail market today (or likely the engineering. Although I suppose they could do two deluxes as the torso and four deluxes as the limb, but there would be some serious compromises for Prowl.)

I only recently got back into comics within the past year, and keeping my budget low was the commitment I made to myself when I started. As it is the only books I collect are the Transformers ones, Rat Queens, and Atomic Robo. (It's nice to see a few other Robo fans on here, although I'm starting to get impatient for the field guide...)

 

RID is hard to summarize until it's finished. It's a series about political tactics and long games. Until it's over, any summary is going to be 50% or more speculation.

I personally still think it's a fun ride along the way, but I think it's hard to take the in-progress story and boil it down into a "sales pitch" summary.

 

I've noticed this too.

In fairness, on Cybertron, and amongst themselves, they are assumed to be speaking their own language to one another, with their own cultural memes and vernacular. I think it's fair to show some disparity with Earth languages. Also, to defend Thundercracker's writing (which I agree is overtly comical to the point of breaking character), he did point out that he's trying to work with metaphor... he's just doing it badly, in a second language.

I do agree that someone who has spent as much time watching TV as he has, should probably have a better handle on this stuff by now... but I guess Thundercracker has never been an intellectual. He's a soldier, who for the last 4 million years has just done what he's been told. He doesn't have any knack for self-expression. There are plenty of humans out there who can hold up their end of a conversation, but who write fiction at a grade-school level... so it's borderline acceptable I suppose.

That said, the "Transformers are aliens, a form of life far, far different from our own" ship has sailed long ago. The analogs between Cybertronian life and Earth life are really, really direct, and not difficult or challenging at all. About the only thing they don't (or shouldn't) understand is gender, but that gets hand-waved as much as possible to avoid stirring up a controversy in the fandom. It would be nice if some of that "difference"... that "alien" quality came back into the series a bit... but maybe not as clumsily as Barber's been handling it up till now.

One problem I have with Barber is just HOW informal his characters are, almost all the time. Every second Decepticon has the same blue-collar thug voice. Every character expresses themself in cartoonish, vaudevillian strokes. It's tiresome.

In the first issue of the new season, when we were getting Marissa's critique of Thundercracker's writing, I laughed out loud, because I thought Barber was in fact trying to lampoon his own writing. It was actually pretty perfect that way.

Then I realized that probably wasn't the intention.  

Again... if I can make some small defense (in the midst of being critical), it does seem like RID has been the major dumping zone for Hasbro product placement. Looking back now, it seems very unlikely that Barber chose to introduce SkyByte or Waspinator or Rattrap or Scoop because he had any plans for them. I think that's part of the reason they mostly got one "intro" issue, and then faded back into the woodwork, contributing almost nothing.

I don't think he exactly rose to the occasion, but he may not deserve full blame on that count.

Yes... and no.

I think that most of the criticisms of RID stand, independent of MTMTE's popularity. I don't quite agree with this notion that's gathered currency lately, that if not for MTMTE, RID would be the best TF series ever. I think that's a rationalization that doesn't quite fly. I was quite critical of Costa, and nagged McCarthy as well, back when we didn't have any glow from MTMTE. The steady parade of dumb turns and bad writing choices in RID now feels almost Costa-like to me. It irks me on a regular basis. In the early months of the run, I was hooked on the potential inherent in the setting and circumstances... but I never felt like it delivered on that promise, and now I've simply stopped expecting anything from it.

Transformers has historically been a MEDIOCRE comic book series, so it doesn't take much to elevate it. If not for MTMTE, I would be collecting these comics out of nostalgic duty, but as a very guilty pleasure. RID would be TOLERABLE... a monthly fix of Transformers, but also a constant source of irritation and disappointment... wishing I was getting something better. It's fair to say that for 90% of IDW's run, the ONLY reason I was reading was because I was a TF fan, and wanted good TF stories badly enough that I was willing to wade through the drek to maybe find some.

I think RID is still blah... but yes, its blah-ness is now cast into far deeper contrast by MTMTE, which is genuinely engaging and stimulating. No guilt. No sense of obligation. No disappointment. What a concept! Who knew it could be like this?  

Maybe my standards and expectations are too high... after all, it's true that MOST comics are barely tolerable. I'm sure that on some level, RID is actually par for the course. But if "average" is actually pretty lame, why waste time on it? Just go for the good stuff, no?

No, I don't think so. First off, I don't think a weak story (especially a long one, in serial format) can be "justified" by its ending. I think that serial writing needs to be entertaining and stimulating throughout. If a series is awkward and obscure for 20 issues, and then pulls out a reveal that's awesome in issue #21, where does that leave you? It leaves you with 20 lame issues, and one good one.

RID in the beginning tried to cast itself as a series about political tactics and long games, but has never actually displayed any aptitude for telling those kinds of stories. Saying something is "political" is not the same as actually BEING political. This isn't a John LeCarré novel. It's androids on a picnic. It's bad comedy.

And at the risk of flogging a dead horse, what makes RID's failure to coordinate its sociological, political, conspiratorial toolset to "play the long game" all the more apparent, is that MTMTE has actually done this exceptionally well, while also delivering snappy banter, wold-building, goofy antics, social commentary, and whatever else. To find a working model for what RID is NOT doing, we need only look over at its sister title. So yeah... RID is still flawed... but it does suffer further by comparison with MTMTE.

At the very least, with the new season they've gotten away from the sterile, turgid fields of the Cybertronian homefront, and the pretense of telling a "layered socio-political fable" and gone back to Autobots vs Decepticons 101. It's a bit more Barber's speed.

zmog

 

I agree, you can't just call something good because it ends well if the ride along wasn't good.

My comment was meant to say that summarizing RID is difficult because you have to include a lot of "it appears that..." and "...for now" types of statements in your summary.

That's separate from whether or not I think the story is good or not.

Personally, I like RID, but I definitely feel that the current arc is strongly asking the reader to bear with some seemingly odd plot turns knowing that they should pay off in the long run. Personally, I'm willing to give Barber the benefit of the doubt given my own enjoyment of RID S1. I can certainly understand if others cannot.

 

Okay, I see what you mean.

I feel like RID S1 was very similar... a lot of the story seemed to be playing that "oh, just wait and see... it'll all pay off" game... except it didn't pay off in my opinion. The conclusion didn't justify the plotting for me, so I'm leery of how things are proceeding in S2...

zmog

 

Having read all of IDW's output for Transformers in this past year pre-Dark Cybertron, I can say RID is okay at best. It does remind me of Costa's run and I did have to force myself to read through it. And it was okay at best. The grand reveals towards the end baffled me more than anything and I was very apathetic to the build up towards them.

I'm about to read season 2 on Earth and I can't help shaking the feeling it's going to be Costa 3.0.

 

No, as SMOG pointed out, RID's crimes are entirely defined on it's own. They're things that don't make sense in the actual context of the story, not just when compared to MTMTE.

Excluding MTMTE, RID is absolutely not the best TF comic ever. I'd still rate the "-ations" higher, despite being a bit blander, they were also really different and kind of ballsy to "redo" G1 more than Dreamwave did. (which is to say, take all of G1's characters and concepts and alter them while keeping them identifiable, rather than a straight reboot with different but similarly-named characters) They also had more consistent quality until the sadly mandate-squished "Revelations."

Hell, some of the early Spotlights were quite good. Better than RID for sure. And, of course, LSOTW.

This also does not make sense.

MTMTE is not special because it's special. Like, it has it's own way of doing things that sets it apart, it IS special, but it's also got quality. You can be MTMTE's quality, but you'll never be MTMTE. It's fantastical, brutal, aloof, science fiction to the extreme, and yet always revolves around, more or less, "human" stories and emotions. You're saying you would deny yourself another comic that matched the quality, simply because you think having two just as good comics is for some reason wrong?

I'm not capable of comprehending that sentiment. (and of course, "good comic on it's own" is debatable)

I'm sorry, but these are two INCREDIBLY shaky and ill-defined reasons for accepting RID as anything more than a deeply flawed, kind of dumb comic. I'm not saying you can't like it, but these are not, to me, reasons for doing so.

 

You deem the reasons wrong.

I deem my reasoning and tastes valid.

I don't really care if anyone thinks that my liking to RiD is wrong.

Yes, I would resign from another MTME-like comic book if it was, like MTME, a TF mix of Star Trek and sitcom. No matter how good and well written it would end. Because I already have such series.

Maybe RiD could use some improvements in writing, but also it could use more good ol Bots vs Cons violence. And 'splosions.

I really don't read it for anything deep and moving.

I kinda cringe at moments like Aerialbots combining into Superion because reasons, but otherwise... I think it's ok.

 

No, I didn't. You seem to have mis-read what I said, and saw the words "reason" and "wrong" togetehr and assumed the worst.

What I actually said, as is plainly readable, was that you made it out like having to books of equal quality was wrong to you, which doesn't make any sense. Are you just not of the belief that there can not be a winner and loser, and that everything has to fall short or rise above?

Okay.

I never said that. Further proving that you didn't actually read what I wrote. In fact I specifically refered to RID not mimmicking MTMTE's themes and flavours, but simply matching it's quality. You literally just responded to the exact opposite thing I said.

So because your reasons are, well, shallow as you admitted, everyone else gets to suffer? Because you read RID to kill time and not think we're not allowed to want anything more substancial?

 

I don't really think RiD was ever supposed to be anything, but an action series. Wouldn't be suprised if its clicheness and simplicity was on purpose. If not by the writer, then by the editor picking this kind of stories. Which isn't the deepest approach to the storytelling ever, but hey...
I'm quite cynical on this one, but maybe IDW wanted to produce just an action flick?
Thing is, nothing we can write on forums can really influence the books, unless overall sales can prove IDW that this formula does not work and a change of approach is needed.

I think it's telling that Barber started writing TF with the movieverse books.

 

I think that most of the problem with RID lies with Barber choosing to tell stories that aren't necessarily playing to his strengths. I think his best work has been the various one or two part stories that fill in some blanks in the universe or in continuity. The Syndromica issues, the Soundwave origin, the Wheeljack and Turmoil issue, the flashback parts of the annual. I feel he should be focusing a bit more on one-offs rather than trying to tell a longer overarching story.

 

RID still feels like the title IDW has to publish so that they can get away with stuff like MTMTE, Windblade and TF vs. GI Joe. I'm still checking it out because Jetfire is a main character and it still has some promise... plus it could link back into MTMTE at any moment so I want to keep up.

John Barber's biggest weakness is that he's both the writer and an editor, so he's more prone to retcon his stories later on with the excuse that it was always the newer version. It's a shame, because TF vs. GI Joe is pretty awesome.

 

Carlos Guzman edits RID.

 

This is what really does puzzle me. I almost feel like any character that isn't being written by Roberts feels like untapped potential.

 

Here is my summary of RID to explain it to another person "something something politics"